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Monday, November 15, 2004

CHANGE YOUR TASTE IN ...

Tonight The Tarts of Plezza are hosting the Melissa Auf De Maur Aufterparty at the Darkroom (Ludlow btw Houston and Stanton). It begins at 11 or 12. There's no list. Karen and I will be pressing play on cd decks that will be playing indie shit you've never heard, pop crap you're embarassed you love (and that will one day get us fired for playing), and everything in between.

I don't know what's wrong with me, but everytime Hail to the Theif or Amnesiac comes on my iTunes I switch it as fast as possible. I really dont like Radiohead anymore... or at least that new album, and i've been avoiding this for far too long. I was OBSESSED with OK Computer and if i were to choose any album that changed my life, it'd be that one: I listened to it once a day for three years, and when i was 17 it solidified my aspirations to work in the music industry. My thought were "You mean, if i worked in the music industry i could go see radiohead all the time and maybe even meet them? get out!"

But Thom's voice on HTTT and Amnesiac is just plain annoying to me and i find them boring musically. When I see their shows live, i'm stoked and think "I take it all back, this is the greatest band of all time!" but then I'm seated at my desk at work and my iTunes shuffles between bands that sound like radiohead (muse) and bands inspired by bands that sound like radiohead (all of emo released post origin of symmetry), and suddenly "Morning Bell" will come on and i cringe. Am I the only one feeling this way? I fully believe that if Radiohead released Absolution, alters would be built in their honor.

Anyway...

This weekend I saw lots of music and worked on the artwork for the new stolen transmission release (this way i can get that shit out to you all right away instead of the huge delay i had with the first one). I'll be posting about the music the release and everything else soon... Until then, I suggest you check out Dirty On Purpose. They opened for the Arcade Fire the other day and were like a combination of Sigur Ros and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Definitely way better than the Hidden Cameras in my opinion.

30 comments:

Anonymous
said...

what complete caka.

Radiohead are the masters of the genre. If you can't deal with the fact that they like to challenge their audience and you'd prefer to listen to a (very average) tribute band like Muse then that's your issue.

The Hidden Cameras are criminally underrated. Lead singer/songwriter Joel Gibb has the bad taste to actually be gay, which embarrasses the metrosexuals. They'd much rather go for some spineless song about a boy-crush. ("Michael"? Gimme a break; Abba was more forthright.) Meanwhile, Gibb sings about AIDS and getting peed on. Maybe the Canadian Hidden Cameras are just more fun than New York City deserves.

I think the last couple of RH CDs require the listener to really pay attention to them. They give up much less on the first few listens, but really open up upon repeated listens. Likewise, if I'm reading on the subway while listening to those CDs, I don't get anything out of them, but if I'm sitting at home with my phones on they are really amazing.

i have to agree about the radiohead. ok computer is still great, and the bends is still one of my favorite albums of all time. kid a was the last cd of theirs i'll listen to. i'll agree with previous posts that their latter-day output is challenging, but i think it is also something else--boring. amnesiac is boring. httt is even more boring.

I don't think a song is a song unless it has a tune you can sing in the shower. Lately Radiohead approach their music as a platform for vague political and social statements. Why the hell should I listen to a band that makes me "work" to make sense of their songs? A fluff piece with a beautiful memorable pop hook is just as artistic, if not more so, than a monotonous, aimless mess of distortion that tries [and fails] to be poetic.

Pop crap is awesome. So what? If you like it, you like it. Down with the music snobheads who will never admit to listening to anything that ANYONE's ever heard of. Snobs, you know who you are! I bet YOU'RE fun at parties.

I don't know what's wrong with you either. Seriously, though, I have to be in the right state of mind to listen to Radiohead now. Lately I find myself switching on The Futureheads or something. Kid A is still awesome, though.

I don't know what's wrong with you either. Seriously, though, I have to be in the right state of mind to listen to Radiohead now. Lately I find myself switching on The Futureheads or something. Kid A is still awesome, though.

Hear Hear. I've had these Radiohead feelings for so long but always thought that maybe it was my musical ignorance. Loving OK Computer and The Bends, and cringing my way through everything else. Although of course live -- all is forgiven. (Esp. when you have Germans screaming RadioKOPF throughout the entire concert.)

But you... People listen and respect you! Esp. musically! What a relief.

Say what you will about "Amnesiac" and the "There There" b-sides, but there are so many layers to "Hail to the Thief!"

2:52 of "Where I End and You Begin" where the bass comes in? EUPHORIC! 2:58 of "Scatterbrain" with the guitar noodling and the "scaaaaaterbrain"? It's as if the center of your chest, your heart, has a string attached to it and Thom has grabbed it and he's pulling you along to walk with him down the street, slowly and maybe a little bit drunkenly. 2:35 of "Myxomatosis"--"you should put me in home or you should put me dowwwn"... sigh... and then "no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" and... and... just the way it builds! And double sigh for the alliteration. And "little babies' eyes!" Swoon. "The raindrops! The raindrops!" I'm still reminded of how they rejiggered "Sit Down, Stand Up" when I saw them in London and it was... I know the definition of cacophony is a harsh and unpleasant sound, but it was the most beautiful, gigantic all-encompassing cacophony ever. 2:24 of "Go to Sleep" with Thom's sort of ghost-like "oooo"s juxtaposed with the, well, shit, I don't have the words for it. Oh, the fucking handclaps in "We Suck Young Blood." And the "la la la la"s at the end are just... I'm not the only one out there who thinks this song is sexy, am I? I can't be. I suppose particularly because Ed sings the "la la la la"s in concert. THE TRANSITION FROM "I Will" to "Punch-Up at a Wedding." As good (if not better) as the transition from "Optimistic" to "In Limbo." Maybe not quite as good as the transition from "Airbag" to "Paranoid Android" but I had a lot of time to romanticize that transition during the 3 years from "Ok Computer" to "Kid A."

I don't know. "Ok Computer" will always be my favorite album, but "Hail to the Thief" is beautiful, too. I think it's better than "Kid A," which suffers from Thom's emotionless voice and the simple, almost dead production.

i knew it this entry would get heaps of comments, i knew it. one day i will sign up instead of posting anonymously, i post way too many comments to be anonymous anymore.

Absolution is underrated. I want Muse to be selling out arenas and headlining more festivals because they deserve to. It's funny coz I also want them to stay small and mildly successful. If they conquer the US like coldplay did in 2003 I will seriously shoot myself. I'm a selfish music snob.

radiohead's new work does require more of an effort but that doesn't necessarily make it any better.

i listened to rh incessantly until amnesiac came out. it wasn't until recently that i rediscovered the bends and cannot stop listening to it. though pablo honey is kind of weak at points, their first three records flow together seamlessly on itunes for me. they've become my daily soundtrack.

pop hits or not, high and dry and fake plastic trees may very well be two of the best songs of the past decade.

ok, i love radiohead, but HTTT was and is somewhat disappointing. not because of the songs - i heard live mp3s from the previous july and was in love with them from that moment. i agree that "there there" is one of the finest pop moments ever. but i really think their "bang out an album in two weeks" method failed. the tones aren't very good, the angst and beauty isn't quite there in the performances. it sounds unfinished; they could have pushed it farther. shame on nigel godrich for wussing out on 18-month recording periods! already to me the album sounds dated somehow.

amnesiac, on the other hand, is *still* ahead of its time. other bands are still assimilating and ripping off stuff from it and kid a. both versions of morning bell are great, but i actually prefer the amnesiac version.

why do these songs annoy you on itunes shuffle? because they're not singles. they're not meant to be taken randomly. when you take on post-OKC radiohead, you immerse yourself into their world. you can't just dip a toe in and pull out scrunching your face up. a few tracks work on their own - "i might be wrong" (without the useless outro), "knives out". and "pyramid song" is just amazing, but sandwiched in between franz ferdinand and who knows what else? oil and water.

let albums be what they're meant to be: a medium in their own right where artists can stretch out and do wacky shit like amnesiac that changes the world. not just a collection of digitized files ready for random shuffle, fighting for our ADD-addled brains.

alright, i did forget to allow that a few moments on amnesiac are far less than stellar. "hunting bears"??? WTF were they thinking? there are better songs on the "pyramid song" single (pick that up sarah, if you haven't - it has a fucked-up digital rocker that sounds like oasis crossed with atari teenage riot. sorta). "packt like sardines..." is also pretty weak. bad opener - just start off with "pyramid song". i also admit that you really have to be in the mood to take "pulk/pull revolving doors", even though i love it.

but honestly i don't blame people for not understanding this album - i bought it in 2001 and it took me until THIS YEAR to not want to skip "life in a glass house". now i realize it's brilliant.

plus, how can you have a better anti-bush/anti-war slogan than "while you make pretty speeches i'm being torn to shreds"?

So basically, Radiohead storms on the scene with a kick-ass, much maligned single, and an underrated debut album. (Listen to the 2nd side of a Pablo Honey tape in isolation, it rules). They get labeled one-hit wonders. Then they rock the world twice with The Bends and OK Computer, and blow minds and change lives. (I also remember the confusion in Radiohead fans' minds when OK Computer came out...there was alot of the same "they're just trying to be obscure" for a few months until it sank in. I'm no exception.)

So now the same monsters that Radiohead created are turning against them? They were the ones who busted your cherries for crying out loud. Maybe they have a vision that exceeds your own? That doesn't mean you have to listen to Amnesiac or Hail to the Thief and like it, but maybe, just maybe think for a second that if they were trying to make a record that would first and foremost please their fans (whoever the fuck they are) there would be no OK Computer?

Thank god for the Muse, filling in the melodramatic void left behind by Radiohead's unwillingness to pander to a bunch of entitled douchebags.

If by "challenging their audience" you mean making boring music and daring people to force themselves to like it because the name "Radiohead" is pretentiously hip then yes, they challenge their audience. Quite often, too.

Muse is awesome. And Matt Bellamy really does sound like the lead singer of Ours. It's eerie.

About Me

Sarah Lewitinn (born February 3, 1980), also known by her nickname Ultragrrrl, is a music critic, DJ, and blogger. She gained notoriety as an assistant editor at SPIN Magazine.
In 2006, New York magazine named Lewitinn as one of "The Most Influential People in Music", citing that "she has more power than any print music critic".